Quick context
We raised our Series A a year ago, $14M led by a top-tier US fund. Closed in 5 weeks of active process, on terms we were happy with. Looking back with a year of distance, here's what worked and what I'd do differently.
What worked
Doing the deck once, polishing it, and never rewriting it. We resisted the urge to keep tweaking based on every conversation. The deck served us across 40+ first meetings.
Letting metrics talk. We led with growth charts. Investors who don't get excited about growth charts aren't your investors anyway.
Optimizing for partner alignment, not just brand. The partner you work with matters more than the firm name.
What I'd change
I would start the process 4 weeks earlier and run it for half as long.
Long fundraises kill momentum. We compressed ours to 5 weeks and that was probably 1 week too many. Next time I'd aim for 3-4 weeks active.
I'd also turn down 5 of the meetings we took. Some funds were obviously not going to invest at our stage. Saying yes was politeness; saying no would have saved real time.